Jonathan, a portrait-painter of some note, was born about the year 1663, and against his inclination was placed by his father-in-law apprentice to a scrivener, with whom he lived six years. Having obtained his freedom by the death of his master, he followed the bent of his disposition, and at the age of twenty became the disciple of Riley, with whom he lived four years, whose niece he married, and of whose manner he acquired enough to maintain a solid and lasting reputation, even during the lives of Kneller and Dahl, and to remain at the head of the profession when they no longer continued to exercise it. The following characterisation of Richardson is by the author of the Anecdotes.

"There is strength, roundness, and boldness in his colouring; but his men want dignity, and his women grace. The good sense of the nation is characterised in his portraits. We perceive that he lived in an age when neither enthusiasm nor servility was predominant. Yet with a pencil so firm, possessed of a numerous and excellent collection of drawings, full of the theory and profound in reflection of his art, he drew nothing well below the head, and was void of imagination. His attitudes, draperies, and backgrounds are totally insipid and unmeaning; so ill did he apply to his own practice the sagacious rules and hints which he bestowed on others. Though he wrote with fire and judgment, his paintings owed little to either. No man dived deeper into the inexhaustible stores of Raphael, or was more smitten with the native lustre of Vandyck. Yet though capable of relishing the elevation of the one and the elegance of the other, he could never contrive to see with their eyes when he was to copy nature himself. One wonders that he could comment on their works so well, and imitate them so little." He quitted business some years before his death; but his temperance and virtue contributed to protract his life to a great length in the full enjoyment of his understanding, and in the felicity of domestic friendship. He died suddenly at his house in Queen's Square, on the 28th of May 1745, in his eighty-first year. In 1719 Richardson published two discourses: An Essay on the whole Art of Criticism as it relates to Painting; An Argument in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur. In 1722 there appeared An Account of some of the Statues, Bas-reliefs, Drawings, and Paintings in Italy, &c., with Remarks by Messrs Richardson, senior and junior. His son made the journey; and from his notes, letters, and observations, they both at his return compiled this valuable work.

Richardson, Samuel, a distinguished novelist, was born in the year 1689, in Derbyshire. His father, the descendant of a reputable family in the county of Surrey, followed the occupation of a joiner. The son was at first intended for the church; but after his father had sustained some heavy losses he was left, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, to make choice of some employment which did not require so expensive a preparation. He only appears to have received the most ordinary training of a country school. He was a bashful boy, and gave an early preference to the society of the other sex. From his childhood he delighted in letter-writing; and to this early taste we may trace the germ of his principal works. "I was not more than thirteen," he informs us, "when three of these young women, unknown to each other, having an high opinion of my taciturnity, revealed to me their love secrets, in order to induce me to give them copies to write, alter, or correct, for answers to their lovers' letters; nor did any one of them ever know that I was the secretary to the others." In 1706 he was bound apprentice to John Wilde, a printer at Stationers' Hall, London. Although he served a rigid master, he contrived to steal from his hours of rest and relaxation some precious intervals for the improvement of his mind. After the completion of his apprenticeship he continued for five or six years to work as a compositor and corrector in a printing-office, and part of this time as an overseer. Thus he gradually arose to the situation of a master-printer, having first taken an office in a court in Fleet Street, and afterwards in Salisbury Court. As an apprentice he had been diligent and conscientious, as a master he was assiduous and liberal. In addition to the proper avocations of a printer, he on various occasions undertook to write indices, prefaces, and, as he describes them, honest dedications. The punctuality, together with the integrity and liberality of his dealings, speedily procured him friends, and his business became very prosperous. Through the interest of Mr Speaker Onslow, he was em- ployed to print the Journals of the House of Commons, in twenty-six volumes folio. In 1754 he was chosen master of the Stationers' Company. In 1760 he purchased a moiety of the patent of law-printer to his Majesty, and in this branch of his business he was joint partner with Miss Catherine Lintot. He was thus enabled to live in comfort, and to make a suitable provision for his family. Like other prosperous citizens he set a due value on country air, and had first a residence at North End near Hammersmith, and afterwards at Parsons Green near Fulham, where he spent such intervals of time as he could spare from business, and where he was seldom without visitors.

The first work that recommended him to public notice was *Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded*, published in the year 1741. The two volumes of which it originally consisted appear to have been written in less than three months. Its success was almost unprecedented, for it reached a fifth edition within the space of a year. "The printer in Salisbury Court," says Mrs Barbauld, "was to create a new species of writing; his name was to be familiar in the mouths of the great, the witty, and the gay, and he was destined to give one motive more to the rest of Europe to learn the language of his country." Some inconsistencies in the work were powerfully ridiculed by Fielding in his *History of Joseph Andrews*, whom he introduces to his readers as the brother of Pamela. This was an injury which Richardson, though an amiable and benevolent man, found it very difficult, if not impossible, to forgive. In his correspondence with his admiring friends he predicted that Fielding would speedily sink into oblivion. But, in the present age, for every reader of *Pamela* and *Clarissa* there are at least five hundred of *Joseph Andrews* and *Tom Jones*.

The brilliant success of this novel prompted some nameless individual to write and publish a continuation of the story, under the title of *Pamela in High Life*. Richardson, who might very safely have disregarded such an attempt to invade his province, was thus induced to add a second part, which however made no addition to his reputation. "These volumes," says Mrs Barbauld, "two in number, are, like most second parts, greatly inferior to the first. They are superfluous; for the plan was already completed; and they are dull, for instead of incident and passion, they are filled with heavy sentiment, in diction far from elegant. A great part of it aims to palliate, by counter-criticism, the faults which had been found in the first parts. It is less a continuation than the author's defence of himself." On the story of Pamela the famous dramatist Goldoni has written two of his plays, *Pamela Nobile* and *Pamela Maritata*.

In the year 1749, Richardson published the first two volumes of *The History of Clarissa Harlowe*. This work, which he extended to eight volumes, is the chief foundation of his celebrity as an original and inventive writer. Notwithstanding its inordinate length, the book long continued to enjoy an almost unrivalled share of public favour, and, whatever may be its defects or redundancies, this favour could only be secured by the author's power over the imagination and moral feelings. The outline of the story is sufficiently simple, nor is the curiosity of the reader excited by intricate plots and marvellous adventures. It is a work, not of action and enterprise, but of character and sentiment. His next production was *The History of Sir Charles Grandison*, published in 1753, in seven volumes. In his previous works he had given ample delineations of female character, and he now endeavoured to exhibit a pattern of a perfect man. Whatever is graceful and engaging in the man of spirit and fine gentleman it was his aim to unite with every moral virtue, and with the strict observance of Christian principles. This was certainly a difficult enterprise; and the writer's genius is more successfully displayed in delineating the character of Clementina, than in portraying that of his hero. The nervous system of Richardson was naturally weak; and during his latter years his hand shook, and he was subject to frequent fits of giddiness. His disorders having at length terminated in apoplexy, he died on the 4th of July 1761, at the age of seventy-two.

Richardson left behind him the character of a virtuous and benevolent man, highly respected in all the relations of private life. His chief weakness seems to have been vanity, which is sufficiently displayed in his private correspondence. His success in literature was so great and so unexpected, and he received so much flattery from his friends, especially from his female friends, that it would have required a very firm texture of mind to resist the access of that passion which so easily converts a wise man into a fool. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Allington Wilde, daughter of the printer with whom he served his apprenticeship. She bore him five sons and a daughter, who all died young. His second wife, who survived him for many years, was Elizabeth, the sister of Mr Leake, a bookseller of Bath. She became the mother of a son and five daughters. The son died at an early age, but four of the daughters survived him: Mary, married in 1757 to Mr Ditcher, an eminent surgeon of Bath; Martha, married in 1762 to Edward Bridgen, Esq.; Anne, who died unmarried in 1804; and Sarah, married to Mr Crowther, surgeon of Boswell Court.

Besides his three novels in nineteen volumes, he published some other works. *The Negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe, in his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte from 1621 to 1628 inclusive*, 1740, fol.; *An edition of Æsop's Fables, with Reflections; Familiar Letters to and from several Persons upon Business and other subjects*. He furnished some additions to the sixth edition of De Foe's *Tour through Great Britain*; and some of his contributions are to be found in periodical works. Long after his death appeared *The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison; selected from the original manuscripts bequeathed by him to his family; to which are prefixed a Biographical Account of that Author, and Observations on his Writings*, by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, London, 1804, 6 vols., 12mo. His works, with a sketch of his life and writings, by the Rev. Ed. Mangin, appeared in 19 vols., London, 1811. (For an estimate of Richardson's place as a novelist, see ROMANCE.)